Tonight on "EWTN News Nightly": While a government shutdown still looms, the Senate has passed the annual Defense Authorization Bill, sending the $858 billion measure to President Biden's desk. The mandate which requires troops to get a COVID vaccine or be kicked out has been stripped from the NDAA. On Friday, President Joe Biden traveled to Delaware to continue getting the message out about the PACT Act. The bill helps veterans get screened for exposure to toxins, like agent orange in Vietnam or burn pits on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, 75 year old Jimmy Lai, the founder of a Hong Kong newspaper, has been behind bars since 2020. The Chinese government is now pushing Lai's trial to September, as they reportedly look to charge him with more serious offenses. Personal friend of Jimmy Lai and cofounder of the Action Institute, Fr. Robert Sirico, joins to tell us about Lai and how they met and formed a friendship. He was an atheist, a former Navy fighter pilot, and now Lieutenant Commander Ali Ghaffari is the founder of the Catholic Divine Mercy Academy in Pasadena, Maryland. Ghaffari joins to share what brought him to the Church and what propelled him to start a Catholic school. Finally this evening, with Christmas only a few days away, Rome Correspondent, Colm Flynn, visited one of the most famous Christmas markets in Vienna, Austria to examine its Christian history.

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